Martin Gelling started VITIS WINES in 1983 as an English Wine Wholesale business, but a shift in business has led to the marketing of fruit wines, meads and other speciality tipples to hotels, off-licences and many other outlets. The traditional meads and ales being sold attracted the re-enactment community, and soon the potential for supplying a complete bar service to historical groups was realised.

The DRUNKEN MONK TAVERN was thus born and able to cover all periods from Viking through Medieval to Cromwellian Civil War, with the Drunken Monk habit more in keeping with all time periods than the usual beer tent with bar staff dressed in modern day tee shirts.

Brother Martin, and his daughter Merryl, are now familiar figures to re-enactors all over Britain, providing taverns and/or licences at many events from the Re-enactors Markets to English Heritages' prestigious 'History in Action' at Kirby Hall, Northants.

With much hard work, the business has grown with VITIS WINES and the DRUNKEN MONK TAVERN supplying outlets and events across the length and breadth of the U.K., with many new lines entering the catalogue each year.